751's Loose Ends

751's Loose Ends
Date 2085-05-06 GM Sarcarian Location Redmond, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Rose of Sharon Howlett Ailbe O'Maly	Kenran-Kai	The Night Throne	The 162s	Tamanous
Sticks String King Stryker Zan Zan	Bill Jones Yakuza Goons	Jerry James Phil the Ghoul	"Tiny" Zigzag	Kevin Goodman Ghoul Guard
Casualties and losses
	Bill	Jerry	"Tiny", Zigzag (knocked out and laesed)	Kevin Goodman

Summary

In which the runners assist the some vampire hunters with a trio of troublesome targets.

Background

See: 751's Local Disappearance and 751's Black Lung for more.

MCT has been targeting the IAMAW Local 751 union workers, sicking a vampire from one of their corporate projects on them in an attempt to scare them into giving up their organizing efforts. Unfortunately this has left a few loose ends in the form of re-animated laborers who have been scooped up by other organizations for various purposes. Word of the problem has reached Rose of Sharon Howlett her cadre of Infected hunters, who have taken it upon themselves to deal with the problem.

The Meet

Rose of Sharon contacts the runners via their fixers and arranges to meet at the Green Light tavern in Kingsgate; with her is new associate Ailbe O'Maly, acting as a bodyguard, just in case. Thankfully this precaution proves unnecessary, as the runners are cordial and pleasant throughout the meet. Rose explains the situation, telling the team that she's been doing a bit of legwork on the situation and has identified a trio of targets who would prove troublesome for her own people to deal with, offering them 50% over the 8k per head that the UCAS government would pay them for this if they can take out the vampires and retrieve their heads as proof (so that she can cash them into the government herself and recoup some of the costs of the job). String King and Zan Zan tag-team the negotiations and manage to up the offer to include grey mana products that the hunters have appropriated (see: Grey Morality), as well as discount weapon foci for the Awakened. Providing the team with three short dossiers on their targets as well as some dead drop locations and a contact number, the bounty hunters leave the runners to their task.

The Plan

According to the dossiers they've been provided, the team's targets are as follows: -Bill Jones, whose body was disposed of in Surprise Lake and retrieved by the Kenran-kai (who use it as a dump site for corpses) - they were about to sell it for spare parts, but when Bill got back up the Yaks decided to p-fix up the hungry vamp and use him to take out their enemies. He is currently being kept in a safehouse operated by a small proxy gang north of Woodinville. -Jerry James ("JJ"), who was found and taken in by The Night Throne for his technical skills - he is currently being put up in a gang-controlled building in Bargain Basement and used by the organization to repair and maintain their mechanical equipment. -Kevin Goodman, who became an adept and had his regeneration kick in early - this would ordinarily put him in a relatively good starting position as a neonate vampire, but unfortunately he was picked up by some Tamanous affiliates out of the Body Mall and has spent his time since then being harvested for Drain Away materials...

As they're not on any particular time crunch, the team decide to address these targets one at a time; unfortunately for Mr. Goodman, they decide to go in alphabetical order.

The Run

Target #1: Mr. Jones

Hopping into String King's car, the team make their way from Kingsgate to Woodinville. En-route they run into a bit of trouble when the car blows a tire, and while String King is changing it a Red Hot Nuke on a motorbike rolls by and decides to have a bit of fun by tossing a live grenade in the window; thankfully Stryker is able to toss it away in time, and String King notes down the dwarf's persona for later vengeance enactment. Arriving at their destination, Sticks and ZZ scan the neighborhood for unusually strong wards that would belong on safe houses while Stryker keeps a close eye out for gang members and SK scans the Matrix for silent-running or unusually-high-quality commlinks. Finding a few, he does a bit of hacking and snoops on messages until he finds a sleaze-modified R5 link belonging to the Yakuza soldier who oversees the gang's operations; tracing this icon, he is able to locate the safehouse (confirmed by the presence of physical defenses, guards and a strong ward).

Horrified by what the Yaks have done to Mr. Jones, the team briefly contemplate taking out the whole operation themselves, but decide they're not being paid enough to make enemies with a powerful crime syndicate. Instead, Sticks and ZZ plan to astrally project inside to the attic (where the hacked texts indicate the vampire is being kept) to finish their target off quickly and cleanly, before having Stryker sneak inside (cutting his way past the sheet metal over the window with a miniwelder) to retrieve his head. This goes *mostly* according to plan - the mage and the explorer are able to get past the ward, but unfortunately for them the now-feral vampire is awake and puts up quite the fight, managing to wound both of them with his duel-natured teeth before he's taken out. While String King heals their wounds with his car's valkyrie module, Sticks casts an invisibility spell on Stryker, who sneaks past the gangers and scales the building with his climbing gear, managing to remove the sheet metal without being noticed and retrieve Jones' head (he *is* heard on his way out, but avoids being shot by running away invisibly as fast his can).

Target #2: Mr. James

After resting for the night (knowing that it's better to go after their nocturnal targets during the day), the team reconvene in Bargain Basement. Knowing their target is in a gang-controlled building, they take a bit of time to case the neighborhood during the day, browsing the local syndicate-controlled black market of stolen goods to see if they can pick up any rumors. While there Stryker, knowing that they're dealing with the Infected, decides to pick up some full body armor for proper protection - with the assistance of the more socially-inclined members of the group, he's able to find a full set of mismatched armor pieces being sold out of the back of a van. During this time, String King and Zan Zan spot a figure clad head-to-toe in a heavy cloak, full face mask and gloves (despite the spring weather) who is cleaning some graffiti (reading "Take Back the Night") off of the side of the building their target is in (who ZZ's assensing reveals is a ghoul); after hacking his commlink, SK discovers some texts from someone called Gerry (with a 'G'), saying that 'Phil' (the ghoul) needs to take 'the other Jerry' to Underworld tonight to fix a generator. Sticks recognizes Underworld as the name of the Night Throne's nightclub, meaning that this must be their target.

Threading a static veil to keep his overwatch from accruing, String King marks Phil's commlink and keeps an eye on him as he goes home to sleep for the afternoon, then takes their target to his job on his motorcycle. Knowing their destination, the team post up about halfway there and ambush the pair en-route, brandishing weapons and ordering the bike to pull over - while Phil likes Jerry and is armed, he knows his crappy bike can't outrun the car with the sidecar attached and that he isn't a match for proper street samurai with swords and assault rifles. Thus, he pulls over and acquiesces when sent a message to leave the vampire and get the hell out of there. Mr. James attempts to make a run for it, but Stryker takes him down with a full-auto barrage and ZZ finishes him off with a quick decapitation before the team nab the head and drive away.

Target #3: Mr. Goodman

Dropping off the head at the dead drop and getting another night of rest, the group meet up near the Body Mall and plan their next move. Not very eager to deal directly with Tamanous affiliates in any capacity, they instead ask around outside, learning from one of the hired guns guarding the place that they should avoid an "ambulance" that has been coming by several times a day (mostly at night) driven by someone named Zigzag, who he says is a member of the 162s and is very dangerous. Knowing that the 162s are also Tamanous affiliates, they surmise that Zigzag is picking up the Drain Away shipments (which is confirmed after the team stake out the mall, spotting the ambulence dropping by near the old hospital's delivery docks, and String King hacks the ghoul's commlink). Not wanting to make enemies of Tamanous, the team plan to ambush and interrogate Zigzag for information on the syndicate's black clinic before laesing her and sneaking inside during the day to put Mr. Goodman out of his misery.

After a *stunning* 17 hit negotiation roll by SK to procure laes (netting the team a Laesa contact in the bargain), the team plan to follow Zigzag from the Body Mall and enact their plan - unfortunately for them she has her bodyguard (an enormous ghoul troll she calls "Tiny") with her, which creates something of a hazard. Despite this, Sticks is able to successfully tail the driver without her knowledge and String King is able to squelch her commlink before Stryker and Zan Zan launch their ambush - the former lights "Tiny" up with a barrage of stick-and-shock which the surprised troll is unable to dodge, and the latter manages to knock him out by splitting the damage pool with her sword and intentionally aiming for one of his many dermal deposits to cushion the blow. Zigzag attempts to defend herself, putting up a hell of a fight with her van's pop-out weapon mounts and her own claws, but she's no match for the pair of street sams who soon render her unconscious (ZZ gets some ghoul blood on her in the process, but is strangely unconcerned at the prospect). They are able to successfully revive and intimidate Zigzag into giving up what she knows of the operation (which turns out to be quite a lot) before laesing her and her bodyguard - SK also goes through her commlink for good measure, stealing a number of secrets regarding Tamanous' local supply chain for Aztechnology, and the team nab the adept veins to sell since, well, they'd go to find Tamanous' operations otherwise...

Armed with Zigzag's knowledge, they return to the Body Mall during the day to enact their plan. Sticks keeps a lookout after turning Stryker invisible (who sneaks inside to locate the basement black clinic), ZZ heads inside and acts like she's looking for discount cyberware in order to be within reinforcement range if things go wrong, and String King slips inside the hospital's host in order to pop the maglock securing the basement door open, allowing Stryker to slip silently inside. He's able to get past the ghoul guard on duty and locate the room containing the unconscious Mr. Goodman, taking out the vampire and subsequently exfiltrating cleanly with the head in a bag, all while doing his best not to think about the terrible things that have happened there.

Aftermath

Reconvening at the Green Light, the team receive their promised payment from Rose of Sharon, who thanks them for their promptness and professionalism - as well, they are able to move the magically-treated adept veins and double their profits, though none feel particularly good about it. Still, they congratulate eachother on a job, well, done and go their separate ways, happy to have not gotten infected in the process.

Rewards

20000 nuyen

2 karma

2 CDP

-2 Night Throne rep

-2 Tamanous rep (for ZZ, signatures are fun)

Optional Contact: Rose of Sharon Howlett (C2/L2 Bounty Hunter) or 3 RVP or 6 CDP

Optional Contact: Ailbe O'Maly (C2/L2 Bounty Hunter) for 3 RVP or 6 CDP

Optional Contact: Argent (C1/L1 Laesa Fixer) for 1 RVP or 2 CDP

Optional Gear Reward: Grey Mana and Weapon Foci (up to R4) @ 2:1

For String King:

+2 Aztechnology rep + 1 chip on Julieta Villanueva

Optional Quality: Social Chameleon @ chargen price

For Stryker:

Optional Quality: Battle-Hardened (1 rank) @ chargen price

Game Quotes

"You can see the oni's eyes bulging... they always do that, but this time it's with feeling." -Zan Zan, staring intently

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Sticks: "This one was a LOT of work for what our pay was. We had to kill three vamps that were killin' off civilians, right? Except they weren't exactly doin' it by choice. The first one was tortured by the Yakuza to go ham on their targets, makin' it constantly thirsty for Essence by cyberwaring him... That one stung for Stryker, but he won't admit that. ZZ and ah decided to kill him off by the Astral, but he almost got the both of us. Stryker got his head, then we were off to the second. This one wasn't really tortured ah don't think, just an asshole vamp we killed off easy. The third one was rough 'cause we had to go to this restricted kinda area in Glow City, so we got someone with the card to get us there. Thankfully, ah didn't need to go in to see the scene, but from what ah heard by Stryker it wasn't dandy by any measure. Ah think they were using the vamp's veins to make some kinda drug, which we got a bunch of. String King, nice guy, he sold it off and split the profits so we could get a higher pay-day... Usually ah refuse that kinda stuff 'cause of my past, but ahm kinda in a pickle with this restaurant thing so ah accepted. Overall, nothin' went too wrong, but this did leave a bit o' a bad taste in my mouth. Ah kinda hope Swerve don't hear about this, or Blackhawk apparently... Ah have a lot of Infected friends, thinkin' about it. That sucks."

String King: "Run coulda gone better, but we got plenty of valuable intel. The division chief is gonna be happy and the analysts are gonna have a field day make more connections and flow charts. Maybe the suits up top will want more investigations or just passive observations. Either way, a fat paycheck and some intel gained and even some shadow contacts. That laes elf was pretty chill. I'm gonna befriend him and see if I can use him to get more info in the future."